WE'RE IN!

Well, what I had thought would have happened in by April has finally happened. We are IN the "New House" (as Evelina continues to call it). Let me tell you one thing about this whole ordeal of renovating and moving: I SERIOUSLY underestimated it. Seriously. And that is probably a good thing, or I would have NEVER done it. The results are surely worth it and we are so happy that we are finally here, with all these months of delay, but oh my, this has been such a rollercoaster ride (and I hate rollercoasters!) Major events like moving, living in a foreign country, and others make one learn things about oneself. I learned and am still learning some things throughout all of this. One major thing: I really am not good at all with chaos! I can't stand mess (although I am not even under normal circumstances the neatest person) and I barely function when things don't have a fixed place. I am sure you can imagine that with living in a smallish apartment and all of our stuff first for months stored at the harbor, and then having it all delivered (over 150 boxes of stuff) to a 4-storey house, added to that the new stuff gathered in the apartment I wasn't coping too well! Ha.

The movers came on the 27th of June and with working some weekends while Evelina was blissfully unaware of all the chaos at my parents' house, we managed to get 3 of the 4 floors in decent and livable shape, and 1 bathroom functioning. I have been wanting to write and post pictures but I have been so darn busy with all of this, and work, that some of you are probably wondering but have been afraid to ask what is going on. The pics will come. They show (we think) that it all was indeed worth it... including my sprained wrist, re-injured sciatica, and the bunch of new gray hairs and wrinkles. I swear moving like this makes one 5 years older in a few months time. It is not just the move, it is orchestrating the renovation and the move while life continues on, with now 2 sick cats, work issues, and all the stuff not to be included in the blog. But again, we are in.

In but not done. While some of our workers were way too casual in my opinion (and got yelled at by me for it!) our painter was waaaaayyyyy too much of a perfectionist. What he estimated would take him 5 weeks, ended up taking 8 and he was still not finished when he left on vacation. Sigh... He is too nice to yell at. But it is going to be chaos again when he returns to finish up since now we have furniture and our stuff in the house. He still needs to paint 2 bathrooms, the entire groundfloor, the hallways, the stairs, and the plinths on all floors! 2 weeks, he says, but I have learned my lesson now. I am estimating 5.

The kitchen people will have to come back still for this and that, can't use my dishwasher yet, nor the ovens... And then there are details to be taken care of on every floor, some less inconvenient than others. But we have internet and a high speed server, so I am eager to try out whether uploading pics and video will go faster now. I hope so, so that I can start making this blog a bit more interesting again.

I will start writing about life in general as the renovation chapter is (thankfully) almost over. About my new American friends, and the 2 Korean boys I am tutoring, about our "hood" which we already love, and Antwerp. I hope that I still have readers left, and that all of you are doing well. We only intend to get better and to finally at some point, find some rest again.

With love, vanessa